Photo By Cameron Knight

Mike Burson, director of facilities for Cincinnati Public Schools, discusses possible sites for Washington Park Elementary School and the School for Creative and Performing Arts. The schools' locations are part of the controversy over 3CDC's plans for Over-the- Rhine.

Imagine that some of the most influential and moneyed local businessmen form a development corporation that gets the go-ahead from your city to take charge of redeveloping your neighborhood.

They don't ask what your neighborhood should look like or what you think of how they want to go about changing it, even though Fountain Square, which they're also redeveloping, gets a series of hearings for public input.

They don't talk to you at all. They create a plan -- two years after you'd already participated in creating one and a year after you'd started helping redesign your neighborhood schools.

They introduce the plan first to the city, then to you. Then they ask you to focus on their ideas, not on your anger about the way they got them. They say they're listening to you; they want your approval. They say they're committed to keeping the housing in your neighborhood affordable, though you're not really sure for whom they mean.

Do you trust them?

Money talks
Welcome to Over-the-Rhine. The Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), is a public-private partnership created in response to a recommendation from Mayor Charlie Luken. 3CDC is charged with tackling the redevelopment of Over-the-Rhine, Fountain Square and The Banks.

The plan 3CDC released in late May calls for giving to the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) the site that Cincinnati Public Schools, parents and residents had spent a year designing for Washington Park School. 3CDC wants to move that school to Walnut Street.

Washington Park would expand northward, swallowing the land on which Washington Park School now sits. 3CDC would surround the park with mixed-income housing and put a parking garage and retail shops next to Music Hall.

The plan has raised an outcry from those who now live or work in Over-the-Rhine or send their children to Washington Park School. Many fear the redevelopment will force out the Drop-Inn Center, a homeless shelter. The people who now hang out in Washington Park -- some of whom are homeless and addicted -- worry they'll have to find another place to commune.

3CDC doesn't have plans for moving the Drop-Inn Center, according to Kevin Armstrong, spokesman for the corporation.

"People keep talking about that, but that's not at all a part of our plan and that's not something we've even talked about, so I don't know where that comes from," he says.

But 3CDC's money and power reveal alliances that don't reassure residents and activists. The publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer, Margaret Buchanan, is 3CDC's marketing chair. The parcel of land where 3CDC wants to put Washington Park School is owned by a subsidiary of Western Southern Life Insurance Co. John Barrett, a member of 3CDC's board, is chairman of Western Southern. 3CDC officials say Barrett has recused himself from discussions about the property.

3CDC doesn't make public its policy on conflict of interest, Armstrong says.

It doesn't help that the head of 3CDC, Steven Leeper, came to town with a reputation for his ability to please power players (see "Leeper of Faith ," issue of March 17-23).

People are also picking up on some favoritism.

Des Bracey, 3CDC's project manager for Over-the-Rhine, told a July 8 meeting of Washington Park School's planning committee that one reason for keeping SCPA in Over-the-Rhine is the possibility of losing donors if it moved. But Kristin Greene, president of the Washington Park School PTA, pointed out that many of those donors are involved in 3CDC.

Parents and others who attended the July 8 meeting about the schools had less than one day's notice, according to activist Brian Garry.

At least they were notified. While designing its plan, 3CDC didn't contact the Over-the-Rhine Community Council at all, says its president, Sister Monica McGloin.

"The public input sessions were handled differently for this plan," Armstrong admits.

But he says it's not true 3CDC didn't consult the community.

"3CDC reviewed the plan with a number of stakeholder groups," he says.

He cites the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, the Over-the-Rhine Foundation and a group calling themselves "Stakeholders."

"I know that representatives of the Drop-Inn Center were present at at least one of the sessions we had with the Stakeholders group," Armstrong says.

However, Pat Clifford, the Drop-Inn Center's general coordinator, says he only heard of the meeting by word of mouth.

'Sackin' us up'
That seems to be how it goes for many community members.

"I felt pretty offended that we were the last people contacted," McGloin says.

3CDC now asks residents to consider the product, not the process.

"I'd be curious to know, when you've heard the questions, if they'd had more to do with process than with the specifics of the plan," Armstrong says.

It would be nice to have Washington Park School more centrally located, Greene concedes, but she doesn't know if the site 3CDC wants is best.

"I don't think we can really say for sure that's a good site until we know the development that's going around the school," she says. "I think the community and the parents feel that it may be kind of inappropriate for 3CDC to come in and propose what's best for our neighborhood, considering most of them don't even live in our neighborhood, much less drive through our neighborhood. They have pictures they bring to the meetings."

Members of the community council agree.

"We're the ones down here in the neighborhood seeing what goes on every single day," says Cassandra Barham-Denton. "We do know what we need. These meetings aren't held for the parents of the children. They're destroying the community."

"And they wonder why we have such a bad attitude," says Annabelle Johnson. "You sackin' us up like kittens and throwing us out in the forest."

They say there's a pattern of disrespect for Over-the-Rhine. A few years ago the city told them to participate in creating a comprehensive plan. They did.

"We do have a plan and I don't understand why 3CDC was created and why the city will not implement the plan that city council passed and the city helped develop," McGloin says "We didn't agree on everything, but I will say this. The process that we did to do the plan." ©